Artist Flips-Out Over Lighthouse

Courtesy the artist and Galerie Lelong, NY

This still from Catherine Yass’s dizzying video called “Lighthouse” shows the English artist giving obsessive attention to a grand marine structure off Britain, capturing it from above, below and even underwater. (Click on the image to see a clip from the full piece, which is screening in Yass’s solo show at Galerie Lelong in New York.) The chaotic vision of the video, shot from swooping helicopters, rocking boats and by submerged frogmen, captures both the chaos of rough seas and the accidents of history that claim even the most ambitious engineering projects. The Royal Sovereign lighthouse, commissioned in 1971, was originally manned but since 1994 has run all by itself on solar power – and with the advent of GPS and other navigation systems, may not have much life left.